Google To Open Project Fi To iPhone, Samsung, and OnePlus

Google's Project Fi mobile service will reportedly be adding support for Samsung, OnePlus, and iPhones. "More handsets from existing Fi partners LG and Motorola will also gain Fi support," reports The Verge. "The iPhone experience is apparently 'in beta,' which is a sign that users might run into bugs or be left without some of Fi's features." From the report: The lineup of "Fi-ready" compatible phones -- those that Google says have been fully optimized for the network -- is fairly short: Google is currently selling the Pixel 3, 3 XL, 2 XL, LG G7, LG V35, Moto G6, and Moto X4 (Android One edition) directly through its Project Fi website.

And although Google is apparently about to widen support and officially allow more devices onto Fi, those "Fi-friendly" phones will still offer the best overall user experience for subscribers, according to the report. It's not yet entirely clear what that means, but we should know more once Google makes a proper announcement. Either way, adding that pool of popular hardware will allow for many more consumers to give the service a shot and see if the pricing model and performance are preferable over Fi's larger competitors.

Re:

[PopeRatzo]

What's Project Fi again?

A very good wireless service. Great prices, coverage everywhere.

I've been using it since 2014 (I think) and I've got no complaints, except that sometimes on calls to certain Eastern European (Balkan) countries, there is like a 5-second delay, which makes it impossible to carry on a conversation. But usually if I just hang up and call again it works fine, and to be fair, it might have nothing to do with Google's service. Other than that, it's been the perfect service to me. Data i

Re:

[spagthorpe]

Agreed. I drove across Oregon a few months ago and had zero T-Mobile coverage across a good chunk of the state. Spotty in Northern California as well.

Re:

[PopeRatzo]

Not quite coverage everywhere. Where I'm located in central PA there's no T-Mobile or Sprint coverage worth while

I'm surprised. I spent time in State College last year and had no problem with Project Fi. Also, I drove straight across the state on I-80 and listened to Spotify the whole way on my Project Fi phone.

Re:

[atrex]

Project Fi can be a little iffy at times. But, compared to just T-Mobile (which I used to be on) it stands a bit higher on the coverage map. And they've designed it so that it can use Wifi to supplement it's coverage quite well (Pixel phones also come with Google's "Wifi Assistant" which will auto-connect to verified open wifi networks and use a Google VPN to secure your traffic). T-Mobile also had a wifi calling option, but, I didn't have that great an experience with it in practice.

Re:

[DrXym]

I looked at the prices and *laughed*. $20 for calls and another $10 for 1GB of data up to 6GB after which it becomes "unlimited". So I could be looking at a monthly bill of up to $80. Plus all the bullshit taxes and fees on top.

I can get unlimited calls and 15GB data for €15 prepaid in Ireland. No contract, no other charges. Roaming & data works in other EU countries too. What the hell is up with the United States when it comes to fucked up expensive mobile service?

Re: Oh good!

[Anonymous Coward]

Come to Indonesia, most expensive consumer telco is

Rp75,000 (~usd5) for 4G 15gb, 100 mins all telco, xxx sms. Will kill your prepaid credit if you don't use a plan tho.

Re:

[LostMyAccount]

What the hell is up with the United States when it comes to fucked up expensive mobile service?

A couple of decades of phones subsidized by carriers and paid for via long-term contracts which include carrier locking of the device. A mash-up of carrier technologies also contributed to lock-in as I don't think it was until recently you could find a phone that would do CDMA and GSM, plus the CDMA standard didn't even have a SIM card you could swap.

It may also be that the geographic size of the US actually makes carrier costs higher due to the larger number of sq. miles to cover, although you could count

Re:

[PopeRatzo]

T-Mobile has better coverage and costs a lot less

Since Project Fi goes over the T-Mobile network, and the Sprint network, and the Cellular One network, it has at least the same coverage as T-Mobile.

For a similar plan on Google Fi, it's $135/month and they throttle you after 15GB.

There's no throttling on Project Fi, and my monthly bill comes to $40. And there are no additional fees. The bill is the bill.

Three major cell networks w WiFi handoff, good pri

[raymorris]

It's a phone plan that uses the networks of Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and selected wifi, with transparent handoff between them. Prices are good. You pay only for how much you use that month.

If you regularly use your phone to stream HD video all day, I haven't compared pricing for that use case. I have FiOS for internet and TV while I'm at home.

Re:

[nasch]

Streaming video with mobile data gets very expensive very quickly on Fi. My son left YouTube running one night and accidentally had wifi off, and I think it was 10 or 15 bucks of data. If that's your use case, do not switch to Google Fi, use a provider that gives you a bucket of data every month.

Yes, we made him pay for it.

Re:

[garote]

Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular use leased connectivity from ATT. There is no "transparent handoff". You're always on ATT.
Transparent wifi handoff is not a unique feature BTW. I'm on Verizon and use it regularly.

Source? Regulatory filings say otherwise

[raymorris]

I wonder if you have any source for that, because everything I'm finding says otherwise, including Sprint's regulatory filing.

They may get some backhaul from AT&T, but that doesn't matter much to the users - the towers matter. Sprint's 3G service is CDMA, AT&T is GSM, so very obviously they aren't the same network - they aren't even the same TYPE of network.

For LTE, Sprint's legal filings compare their LTE network to AT&T's much larger network.

I'm all for this

[Anonymous Coward]

There have been ways to "hack" a phone onto the Fi network but none of the ways to my knowledge have worked 100%. I would be really interested in this. I was going to leave AT&T for Spectrum phone but they do not support BYOD yet.

Re:

[Travis Mansbridge]

Fi uses Sprint and T-Mobile towers as well as wi-fi calling, with software covering seamless hand-offs between these (and providing a secure VPN to make use of Google's list of "trusted" public open wi-fi networks). Without the software you can use the network on T-Mobile (or probably Sprint) towers with any Android phone compatible with T-Mobile's bands, but you won't get wi-fi calling or the other benefits.

Network Handoff

[Anonymous Coward]

In case anyone was wondering why phone selection is limited: Fi's SIM card has two profiles for quickly moving to/from T-Mobile and Sprint, and wi-fi also.

Why is Project Fi only available on select devices?
These devices are the first smartphones that support our network of networks. They work with the Project Fi SIM card, which supports multiple cellular networks, and have a state-of-the-art cellular radio tuned to work across network types.

Too expensive

[zoid.com]

Project Fi is too expensive for a family plan. Four of us get unlimited data for $40 / line. And believe me, teenage kids know how to use data. If it was just me then it would be ok.

Re:

[CrashNBrn]

Data usage charges caps out after 10GB ($100) for the two of us, with a base fee of $20 + $15 monthly. With no bogus mobile extra fees.

Although the data charging cap might be higher with more users.

Re:

[wirelessjb]

Teens know how to use data but they can be taught to conserve it as well. We use the Project Fi family plan with 2 teenagers. The kids get 3GB/month for free, and anything over that comes out of their piggy banks. Don't tell them, but we're actually putting the money in envelopes and we'll give it back to them when they graduate. They haven't had to pay too often - they quickly learned the cost of streaming YouTube over cellular data. They have also learned to use the Fi app to monitor their usage, and how

Re:

[wirelessjb]

For us, it would be more expensive to go with T-mobile, and for us the Fi coverage is better than T-mobile alone. Also the international roaming aspect is nice, T-mobile may or may not have that, I don't know.

Re:

[DethLok]

"we're actually putting the money in envelopes and we'll give it back to them when they graduate."

Why not bank it so it can't be stolen while also earning some interest for them, ideally more than inflation?

Re:

[mapkinase]

>they quickly learned the cost of streaming YouTube over cellular data

Means that they will get very little money in these envelopes when they graduate.

Re:

[wirelessjb]

The kids don't know we're saving it to give it back to them, so there is no incentive problem. Also, it seemed very draconian to just take their money, which often comes from birthday gifts from relatives, and use it ourselves. Also keep in mind that not all kids respond to monetary punishments; ours do, but some kids respond better to having privileges taken away or, who knows, being sat in the corner for an hour. Every parent has to tweak their methods to figure out what works. This happens to work for us

"User-experience" = Google efficiency, no doubt

[Etcetera]

And although Google is apparently about to widen support and officially allow more devices onto Fi, those "Fi-friendly" phones will still offer the best overall user experience for subscribers, according to the report. It's not yet entirely clear what that means, but we should know more once Google makes a proper announcement.

It should be fairly obvious what that means: more direct (or mandated) integration with Google's caching services at the network, OS, and (probably) baseband layer.

To *some extent* this is actually not incredibly unwarranted, nor unprecedented. But the legacy mobile providers are still not, first and foremost, data collection companies... they're telecommunications providers. Google isn't that, and can no longer be trusted to be that without an abundance of caution.

Wifi calling is awesome....

[Radical Moderate]

if you're a basement dweller. It was kind of sketchy at first, but it's been solid for me for the past year.

What the Fuck is Fi?

[fodder69]

Love when a stupid ass article can't be bothered to mention what the fuck it is about.

Re:

[rossdee]

Fi ia the singular of Fithp , a race of aliens that look like baby elephants , that try to conquer earth in Niven/Pournelle's book Footfall

Re:

[gitano_dbs]

Love when a stupid ass article can't be bothered to mention what the fuck it is about.

yeah specially when its just a commercial ad, cant be more moronic.

Hmm

[jimbo]

I've been hoping it'd come to Canada though it's probably very unlikely. Our providers would probably fight it any way possible, they wouldn't want anything to interrupt their party.

I'm any case I also wonder how the Fi privacy policy looks like, considering the main business of the mothership.

What's with synth fur in logos?

[mapkinase]

https://fi.google.com/about/ [google.com]

Looks weird and perplexing

Project Fi is very Useful

[Pikoro]

Project Fi is very useful if you do a lot of international travel. That's where it shines, because the data/call rates don't change and it's supported in like 175 countries. I travel to Japan a lot and it's nice to have my phone, just work. Using an original Pixel BTW.

Re:

[garote]

That depends on how you value your money versus your time.
The rates don't change, true. But those rates are atrocious compared to local rates in almost all of those 175 countries.
Convenient for occasional short-term international travel, but if you're going somewhere for more than a week, and really using your service, you're just letting Google vacuum up your money because you can't be bothered to, say, pick up a prepaid sim at an airport kiosk.

Answer me this: when it "switches seamlessly to wifi", does i

Re:

[garote]

Thank you, anonymous internet personage.

I gotta wonder now, how is this any different from the automatic switching that every smartphone has done for the last decade?

If this is just about voice calls, how is this different from the automatic switching between WiFi and cellular that Verizon does when I'm actively making a call, or the automatic switching that an iPhone does when I'm making a "facetime" audio or video call? Why would Google mention this if it's de-rigueur? Is some other magic going on?

Just waiting for Projects...

[CanadianMacFan]

Just waiting for Projects Fee, Fo, and Fum.